The Architectural Evolution of Onondaga Golf & Country Club
Onondaga Golf Club was formed in 1898 on a farm owned by Charles Hiscock with a very rough and ready nine holes. The golf course was then rebuilt and improved the following year by member David Campbell. In 1899 Onondaga committed itself to buying the Van Schaick property in Fayatteville which allowed for a far longer and better golf course. In 1901, David Campbell was asked to produce the new nine hole layout on the Van Schaick property. The course began at 2,800 yards, but quickly grew to 3,470 yards by around 1914. This would have been a very long nine holes at that time. David Campbell was also asked to produce another nine holes across the road on Earnest White’s property in 1907 (the current Lyndon Golf Course) making the club into 18 holes. The club continued to lease the Lyndon nine up until 1930.
The reason I mention this history is because three of David Campbell’s holes were kept and included in Walter Travis’s layout, with the 5th and 11th remaining in play today. Skip Wogan removed the 4th in 1983, due to the road’s proximity, but players can still see most of the original hole. While this is an obvious loss, the liability issue was too great for the club to continue with.
In 1917 the club acquired the 94 more acres known as Bang’s Farm in order to become a contiguous 18 holes. In 1919 they then commissioned one of the top architects of the time Walter Travis to layout “a bona fide 18 for Onondaga.” Travis actually designed two layouts, one using the newly acquired land and the existing property, the other included one additional parcel (the Kimber property) not yet owned by the club. The club trusted Travis and acquired the additional 50 acres to build the favored layout. The course was built and opened in 1921.
Onondaga Golf & Country Club is still essentially a Walter Travis Golf course, with 11 holes of this layout still almost completely intact. The holes 1, 2, 6, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 remain largely as Travis designed them. He also made the decision to keep both 5 and 11, which gives us a course with 13 holes that date back to his original layout of 1921.
In 1928 the club hired Stanley Thompson “the most conspicuous golf course architect in Canada” to come in and “modernize” Travis’s 18 by rebuilding the greens at holes 7, 12, 15 and 17 and by altering some fairways and bunkers. The plan is in the clubhouse archives available for viewing. I am not convinced this work was done because the 7th doesn’t exist and the other 3 greens are excellent examples of Travis’s rectangular green sites and match the existing Travis green sites. Additionally there is not one bunker on the course that appears to suggest that Thompson’s artistry made an appearance at Onondaga. When you look at the bunker recommendations on the plan it appears that nothing was actually done.
Later in 1930, after purchasing more land, the club extended Thompson’s commission to include laying out an additional nine holes (I could not locate this drawing). The depression quickly brought and end to this project and it was cancelled and Thompson was released from his contract. That was the end of Thompson’s time with Onondaga since the club, like many others, had to deal with impact of the depression.
The course saw little happen until 1962. Hal Purdy was brought in to look at the final three holes on the front nine. He looked to add length to the 7th by pushing the green back and to straighten out the 8th and turn it into a par four. Member Edward Collum proposed that the 8th could be a par three set in the trees and the 9th could be a massive uphill par five coming back to the clubhouse. Purdy followed his suggestions and the current 7th, 8th and 9th holes were built at that time. The routing change and holes worked well, but the only problem was this occurred in an era of where there was an emphasis on modernization of golf, so the architecture did not match with the existing architecture from Walter Travis.
In 1982, the club grew very concerned with the proximity of the 3rd and 4th greens to Genesee Street and the liability they faced. Skip Wogan and Samuel Mitchell were brought in and proposed moving the 3rd green left and into the orchard and 4th green to the right and away from the road for safety. The holes were built and opened for play in 1983, but once again the work represented a modernization of the golf course. The 3rd and 4th holes have probably been the least popular changes to the course to date, since they bare even less resemblance to the other Walter Travis green sites.